Gas turbine engines (“GTE's”) typically include one or more fuel injectors that direct fuel into a combustor for combustion. The fuel injectors may include multiple fuel paths or fuel streams, such as a main fuel stream and a pilot fuel stream. Due to the proximity of the fuel injector to the combustor, liquid fuel tubes providing liquid fuel to the pilot assembly (called pilot liquid tube) of the fuel injector may experience high temperatures during GTE operation. In addition to potential thermal damage to fuel injector components due to high temperature, prolonged exposure to these high temperatures may cause the pilot liquid tube to clog over time due to fuel coking.
U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2010/0175382, Eroglu published on Jul. 15, 2010 shows a gas turbine burner. In particular, the disclosure of Eroglu is directed toward a burner of a gas turbine that includes a swirl generator and, downstream of it, a mixing tube. The swirl generator is defined by at least two walls facing one another to define a conical swirl chamber and is provided with nozzles arranged to inject a fuel and apertures arranged to feed an oxidizer into the swirl chamber. The burner includes a lance which extends along a longitudinal axis of the swirl generator and is provided with side nozzles for ejecting a fuel within the burner. The side nozzles have their axes inclined with respect to the axis of the lance and can be positioned along the axis of the burner.
The present disclosure is directed toward overcoming known problems and/or problems discovered by the inventors.